songs where "I" doesn't mean "me, the singer"

[kcswimjustin]

Hello songwriters,

 

I'm looking for songs that lyrically function as "dramatic monologues," in that they use a first-person speaker that clearly isn't the songwriter.

 

Obviously, most of us use our poetic license to modify/manipulate/heighten our own experiences when "personal" songs so they're not completely autobiographical, but there are some instances where the songwriter is assuming someone else's identity -- a historical figure (Mark Knopfler's "Sailing to Philadelphia" is told from Jeremiah Dixon and Charlie Mason's perspective) or the eyes of a participant in an event (Bruce's Springsteen's "The Rising" assumes the perspective of a firefighter climbing the World Trade Center on 9/11).

 

Can anyone refer me to some songs that work this way?

 

 

Thanks a bunch.

[rsadasiv]

Extremely common (maybe even definitive) for the singer/songwriter genre. A very common construction is "I am a " - most personal songs don't bother with this type of externalized characterization - in personal songs the pronoun will be followed by a verb or adverb ("I'm running down the road, etc). When Liz Phair says "I'm a big, tall man" in Big Tall Man, it's pretty clear, based on the gender, that she can't be talking about herself, but that she is playing a character. Similarly when Suzanne Vega says "My name is Luka" in Luka or "I'm your wicked Uncle Ernie" in the Who's Fiddle About, seriously, there are thousands of examples out there - google is your friend.

[Nick*]

I think a songwriter often assumes someone else's identity, but we don't always realize it. As a matter of fact, I just put up a song in another thread called "So Sorry." Here is the link..... http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=846258&songID=6960079

 

I guess if you listen to the way I use "I" you might think I was referring to myself as a ghost....however, I'm actually taking the identity of a dead friend. So, I would assume many songwriters use "I" from someone else's perspective, but we just don't always realize it.

[Nick*]

A song that comes to mind is "House of the Rising Sun." I remember in Dylan's version he assumed the identity of what seemed to be a female prostitute. And in the Animals version I believed it switches to a man.

[blue2blue]

Yeah... the Animals version is great in some ways but the gender switch up has always vexed folk purists... it really robs the song of its coherence and sensibility. Most folkies who do it use the traditional lyrics, which are, indeed, from the perspective of an indentured prostitute in a house of infamy. As they used to say.

 

I knew the song before because I was a folkie -- not a rocker -- when I was in junior or early high school (when the Animals version came out).

 

One day my 10th grade history teacher -- who I thought was utterly cool because he had a component hi fi in his classroom closet and listened to Diz and Trane as he worked after school hours -- but who was generally thought of as a square and a dork (because he listened to all that square jazz stuff when he could have been listening to Herman's Hermits, right?) -- decided to give the class a lesson on traditional American music and pulled a bunch of folk albums out of his collection and brought them in. He borrowed the Animals recording of "Rising Sun" from a student and compared it with the Dave Van Ronk version to show how a real folkie was not afraid of singing from a woman's perspective if that was the way the song was written... But when the little whitebread know-nothings in my suburban school heard Van Ronk's deep and raspy voice singing from a woman's perspective, they all fell out. They could not get over it. Nervous laughter and dumb jokes. There are so many reasons I still have contempt for that school (and district) and a lot of my fellow classmates, but that day really stands out... even though it was so minor, relative to the extremes of boneheadedness I watched there over the years. Mind you, I guess expecting 10th graders to show any sophistication is spittin' into the wind, but, I dunno...

 

Not that amusingly, maybe 7 or 8 years ago, when that stupid Classmates.com site was still free, I was poking around the forum devoted to that high school and I came on a thread making fun of my old history teacher. The guy who started it was ten or fifteen years after me but he was clearly made out of the same brain-stunted mentality as so many of my contemporaries... I opened up a nice withering channel of scorn on him and a few others and pretty much stopped the thread in its tracks. (I checked back a few months later, since I'd bookmarked it, and my post was still the last one in there, which was gratifying in a very minor sort of way.)

 

Sometimes it's not nice to know some things never change.

[kcswimjustin]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm actually a teacher myself, and I'm trying to find some good examples to show kids that in poetry (and songwriting), that 1) assuming someone else's identity can yield a lot more creative possibilities than limiting yourself to your own personal experiences, and 2) it's a technique that's still relevant today.

 

I've recently run across David Wilcox's "Rusty American Dream" (which is told from the perspective of a car) and "The Lighthouse's Tale" (written by Tim O'Brien, I think) that's told from the lighthouse's perspective. I hadn't even thought about inanimate objects when I began crafting a list, but they're nice to use because they're so clearly not the writer's voice.

[yenerich]

Rolling Stones have one example on simpathy for the devil, its obvious jagger is not talking about himself.

 

Please allow me to introduce myself

Im a man of wealth and taste

Ive been around for a long, long year

Stole many a mans soul and faith

And I was round when jesus christ

Had his moment of doubt and pain

Made damn sure that pilate

Washed his hands and sealed his fate

Pleased to meet you

Hope you guess my name

But whats puzzling you

Is the nature of my game

I stuck around st. petersburg

When I saw it was a time for a change

Killed the czar and his ministers

Anastasia screamed in vain

I rode a tank

Held a generals rank

When the blitzkrieg raged

And the bodies stank

Pleased to meet you

Hope you guess my name, oh yeah

Ah, whats puzzling you

Is the nature of my game, oh yeah

I watched with glee

While your kings and queens

Fought for ten decades

For the gods they made

I shouted out,

Who killed the kennedys?

When after all

It was you and me

Let me please introduce myself

Im a man of wealth and taste

And I laid traps for troubadours

Who get killed before they reached bombay

Pleased to meet you

Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah

But whats puzzling you

Is the nature of my game, oh yeah, get down, baby

Pleased to meet you

Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah

But whats confusing you

Is just the nature of my game

Just as every cop is a criminal

And all the sinners saints

As heads is tails

Just call me lucifer

cause Im in need of some restraint

So if you meet me

Have some courtesy

Have some sympathy, and some taste

Use all your well-learned politesse

Or Ill lay your soul to waste, um yeah

Pleased to meet you

Hope you guessed my name, um yeah

But whats puzzling you

Is the nature of my game, um mean it, get down

[rsadasiv]

 

Rolling Stones have one example on simpathy for the devil , its obvious jagger is not talking about himself. Please allow me to introduce myself Im a man of wealth and taste

 

 

I am

[Silverfox]

Hopefully my song doesn't involve me although I used "I".

 

*shivers*

[blue2blue]

Rolling Stones have one example on simpathy for the devil , its obvious jagger is not talking about himself. Please allow me to introduce myself Im a man of wealth and taste Ive been around for a long, long year Stole many a mans soul and faith And I was round when jesus christ Had his moment of doubt and pain Made damn sure that pilate Washed his hands and sealed his fate Pleased to meet you Hope you guess my name But whats puzzling you Is the nature of my game I stuck around st. petersburg When I saw it was a time for a change Killed the czar and his ministers Anastasia screamed in vain I rode a tank Held a generals rank When the blitzkrieg raged And the bodies stank Pleased to meet you Hope you guess my name, oh yeah Ah, whats puzzling you Is the nature of my game, oh yeah I watched with glee While your kings and queens Fought for ten decades For the gods they made I shouted out, Who killed the kennedys? When after all It was you and me Let me please introduce myself Im a man of wealth and taste And I laid traps for troubadours Who get killed before they reached bombay Pleased to meet you Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah But whats puzzling you Is the nature of my game, oh yeah, get down, baby Pleased to meet you Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah But whats confusing you Is just the nature of my game Just as every cop is a criminal And all the sinners saints As heads is tails Just call me lucifer cause Im in need of some restraint So if you meet me Have some courtesy Have some sympathy, and some taste Use all your well-learned politesse Or Ill lay your soul to waste, um yeah Pleased to meet you Hope you guessed my name, um yeah But whats puzzling you Is the nature of my game, um mean it, get down

 

Ya never know...

 

 

[Lee Knight]

Peter Gabriel's The Intruder

 

I know something about opening windows and doors

I know how to move quietly to creep across creaky wooden floors

I know where to find precious things in all your cupboards and drawers

 

Slipping the clippers

Slipping the clippers through the telephone wires

The sense of isolation inspires

Inspires me

 

I like to feel the suspense when I'm certain you know I am there

I like you lying awake, your baited breath charging the air

I like the touch and the smell of all the pretty dresses you wear

Intruder's happy in the dark

Intruder come

Intruder come and leave his mark

leave his mark

 

I am the intruder

[MDR]

John Prine, "Angel from Montgomery"

 

"I am an old woman....."

[blue2blue]

 

John Prine, "Angel from Montgomery" "I am an old woman....."

 

 

Something about the way he opens up that one always grabs me... it's so improbable... but within a few lines you're utterly hooked.

 

Prine is certainly one of the best portraitists in songwriting, seems to me. A brilliant writer in many ways. And he can be drop dead funny and still put a grim point on things...

[MDR]

 

Prine is certainly one of the best portraitists in songwriting, seems to me. A brilliant writer in many ways. And he can be drop dead funny and still put a grim point on things...

 

 

I still tear up whenever I hear "Hello in There", even 35 years on.

 

R

[VGW]

Heck, Johnny Cash made a living off of this. A Boy Named Sue and Folsom Prison Blues were obviously not about him.

[myredshoes]

I still tear up whenever I hear "Hello in There", even 35 years on. R

 

"We lost Davey in the Korean War, and I still don't know what for, don't matter anymore..."

 

The man is intentionally trying to mess us up.

 

And succeeds.

[nwtsnma]

all

[myredshoes]

I was singing (well, bleating) Angel from Montgomery for Kay last night, couldn't get the vocal key, tuned down to D standard, and then I was trying (because I used to play all of these) to remember some hit he had, something big, you know, his Werewolves of London. And I couldn't think of a single hit. But OMG what a writer John Prine is.

 

Zevon reminded me much of Prine. No string of hits, just a great river of beautiful writing, going on for years and years.

 

I feel much the same way about the work Liz Phair does. She seems consistantly stronger and more diverse (to me) than almost anyone else I listen to regularly.

She has this song on the Somebody's Miracle album called Table for One about going downstairs in the morning, taking the bottle of vodka out of the insulation in the wall beside the washing machine... it's just an amazing mess and beautiful and true.

[MisfitKay138]

I was singing (well, bleating) Angel from Montgomery for Kay last night, couldn't get the vocal key, tuned down to D standard, and then I was trying (because I used to play all of these) to remember some hit he had, something big, you know, his Werewolves of London . And I couldn't think of a single hit. But OMG what a writer John Prine is. Zevon reminded me much of Prine. No string of hits, just a great river of beautiful writing, going on for years and years. I feel much the same way about the work Liz Phair does. She seems consistantly stronger and more diverse (to me) than almost anyone else I listen to regularly.

 

meh meeehhh meeaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! get back to work ya slacker!!! :poke: